20 March 2025

Industrial designer working on a digital blueprint with a 3D holographic city model.

The age of industrial metaverses is coming – but what will it require to interconnect them?

The digital and physical worlds are no longer separate. Factories, supply chains, and entire industries are building connected, intelligent environments that blur the line between reality and simulation. This is the industrial metaverse. And it’s more than just a trend.

Unlike basic digital twins, which create static replicas of physical systems, the industrial metaverse is dynamic. It allows machines, people, and data to interact in real-time across an entire ecosystem. A production line in Germany can sync with a supplier in Japan, making adjustments on the fly. A factory in Detroit can test new workflows virtually before making a single change in the real world. A full extent of metaverse realization would mean co-location of the physical world as well as a mirror copy of the physical world as 3D virtual reality where a supplier in Japan can interact with a production line in Germany as if the line is physically located in Japan.

In technical terms, the metaverse consists of multiple words, typically realized as 3D AR/VR/XR. A metaverse world can also connect to the physical world, thus blending what is real and virtual. The blending involves AR/XR and IoT technologies.

We anticipate that many metaverse worlds will need to be interconnected in the future. Thus, an interconnection fabric will be needed for metaverse worlds. The interconnection needs to connect not only in terms of visual, aural, and interactive content but also in terms of modalities and non-functional properties such as ownership, security, and privacy.

For example, two companies interlinked to each other in the supply chain network, each running their own private metaverses; their private 3D metaverses would also need to be interconnected while meeting functional and non-functional technical requirements as well as business agreements governing data flow and their ownership seamlessly.

The concept of interconnection of industrial metaverses (connected in a supply chain network) is powerful and has a clear business value, but it’s not without obstacles. Data silos, high energy demands, and the challenge of interoperability still hold it back. For example, volumetric video, the foundational building block of 3D metaverse, requires at least 5x bandwidth, typically traditional 2D HD quality videos, which are generally not supported by the current communication networks in the wild.

Another challenge is that one company may use a point cloud-based structure for representing volumetric videos in its metaverse, and another may use a mesh-based structure. Even if two companies use point cloud-based representation, they may use different fidelity/resolution, i.e., one using 1 million points per cubic meter and the other using 100,000 points per cubic meter. Data flow between these metaverses requires careful mapping and potential data reconstruction.

Each company independently chooses point cloud vs. mesh representation for the metaverse based on its business needs and available technical and financial resources. Therefore, to make the vision a reality, industries need an efficient interconnection that ensures smarter integration, seamless data exchange, and a way to balance sustainability with digital expansion.

The biggest challenge is bringing it all together

We already have the building blocks. Edge computing, AI, digital twins, and 6G are advancing. The real challenge is making them work together in a way that’s efficient, secure, and scalable.

Right now, interoperability is a nightmare. Industrial systems are filled with proprietary software and incompatible data formats. IoT manufacturers each have their own standards. This makes seamless collaboration nearly impossible.

Efforts like the One Data Model (ODM) by the IETF are pushing toward IoT data standardization. Similarly, OpenXR is spearheading the efforts towards building standards for 3D immersive experiences crucial to metaverse worlds. But we’re still far from a true standard.

Then there’s energy consumption. The industrial metaverse depends on real-time 3D data and high-bandwidth networks. While industries push toward carbon neutrality, the processing power needed for immersive environments could undermine sustainability efforts.

The backbone of the industrial metaverse is a smarter data system

To break down barriers and make the industrial metaverse work at scale, industries need an intelligent interconnect— a flexible, integrated system that ensures smooth data flow and governance that can be used to build the interconnect needed. Building this foundation requires several key technologies, each playing a crucial role in making industrial operations more connected, efficient, and adaptive.

Edge intelligence brings data processing closer

Instead of sending everything to the cloud, edge computing processes data right where it’s created: on machines, factory floors, and IoT devices. This reduces lag, cuts bandwidth costs, and enables real-time decision-making.

For industries, this means predictive maintenance that prevents breakdowns and faster, AI-driven automation that adapts on the spot.

5G and 6G keep everything connected

The industrial metaverse needs instant, high-speed communication between machines, digital twins, and human operators. 5G and emerging 6G networks make this possible.

Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) keeps factory operations running smoothly.
Network slicing ensures dedicated bandwidth for critical processes.
Semantic slicing prioritises key data, reducing unnecessary transmissions.

This means factories, supply chains, and engineering teams can stay connected in real time, no matter where they are.

Digital twins are more than just replicas

In the industrial metaverse, digital twins aren’t static models but living, evolving systems that mirror reality.

These twins let industries:

Simulate what-if scenarios to prevent failures before they happen.
Test and optimise processes without disrupting production.
Enable global teams to collaborate in real time on the same virtual model.

As industries scale, these virtual environments will become the foundation for everything from manufacturing to logistics.

AI creates smarter, more efficient systems

Instead of transmitting raw 3D sensor data, AI-powered semantic embeddings compress and optimise information. This allows for faster, more efficient communication between industrial environments.

AI also detects patterns, predicts failures, and automates decisions, reducing human workload and making operations smoother.

Sustainability needs to be a priority

For the industrial metaverse to work long-term, it cannot become an energy drain. Efficient AI processing, localised edge computing, and smart data management can cut unnecessary power usage. Companies also need to push for standardised, eco-friendly protocols that make large-scale industrial networks sustainable.

Irreversible new landscape

The industrial metaverse is not a concept anymore. It is unfolding with every sensor embedded in machinery, every AI system refining a production line, and every digital twin anticipating a problem before it occurs. The ground beneath industry is shifting with the steady, inevitable motion of continents drifting toward an irreversible new landscape.

While companies may see this as an upgrade to their technology, they are, in reality, rewiring the nervous system of modern industry. Machines are learning to anticipate; factories are becoming more like living organisms—adapting, optimising, and responding to unseen variables in real time. Supply chains, once rigid and prone to bottlenecks, will behave more like rivers, finding the most efficient path forward and reshaping themselves in response to disruption.

This is already rewriting the industry rules. The only question is who will read the new script and who will find themselves speaking a language that no longer belongs to the present.

Doctoral Researcher

Abhishek Kumar

abhishek.kumar@oulu.fi

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